First Chemo Treatment on the 9th

Kaniksu

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 said:

Nancy,

What drug combination are you receiving ?  I saw were someone asked you, but do not see an answer from you (sorry if I somehow missed it). I did see where two replies mentioned their own experiences with R-CHOP, the most common first line NHL therapy. Is your therapy R-CHOP ?  Knowing this will determine the best replies to your quesions.

Ranger work is so cool !  The building in your pic looks like some of the old ranger facilities here in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains where I live, built by the WPS and CCC around the President Roosevelt/ World War II era.  The Smokies -- most popular national park area in the United States.

 

For my part, welcome, and may your chemo experience be relatively problem-free, and most of all, successful,

max

RCHOP

yes RChop is it...I felt so good on Monday that I worked for six hours..but now...forget. It, I was in and out of bed for the past two days..Is that normal? Smokey Mountains are beautiful too!

 

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

Kaniksu said:

RCHOP

yes RChop is it...I felt so good on Monday that I worked for six hours..but now...forget. It, I was in and out of bed for the past two days..Is that normal? Smokey Mountains are beautiful too!

 

Spectrum

Nancy, 

I did r-abvd, which does not have Prednisone; that is, there was no stimulant-steroid given with my treatments, so I am not sure how the 'bouncy-ball" cycle of CHOP works.  I have read here were a few people on abvd did get steroids, but it is not ordinarily done.

I would say if tired, sleep. If feeling energetic, get up and do stuff.  Your body will tell you what it is in the mood for, or able to handle.  SInce CHOP is the most common lymphoma treatment, a lot of people will hopefully share how their experiences on it went.

I slept 15 or more hours a day for six months.  Work was a remote memory...  Thankfully, I did not require inpatient care.

.

Unknown

Kaniksu said:

Had it on the 18th

Thanks for asking...it ended up being a long day..they thought it would take six hrs but ended up 10 hrs, because I had a small reaction..the nurses were great and got me out of it, so they just slowed down the infusion..This site and everyone's comments totally got me prepared for everything I experienced...Consipation,check, bad nausea,check, bouncing off the walls from prednisone, check...now I am expecting  the prednisone let down...Just pretty rough on me for the first few days. Only one nausea pill today and actually went in to work for 6 hrs today. My daughter came yesterday and shaved my head... I must say I will Never complain about the hair God gave me again..I'm hoping to go to the office tomorrow for a while, and then telework. I'm curious to find out if they increase the dosage with each treatment? I forgot to ask.. oh, birder if you read this since you were the one to comment on the constipation, I will now recommend Smooth Move herbal tea...I will drink a cup of it the night before the infusion and as long as I am on the nausea pill.... Best to each and all of you as we go through this together...nancy

Rituxan

i had an extensive course of Rituxan only. Once a week for 8 weeks then every 8 weeks for 28 months. On my first infusion I experienced a severe drop in blood pressure. I blacked out and awoke to Doctors performing chest compressions. The dose was slowed to a trickle and the infusion Was completed in 10 hours. After that everything went well. I suffered leg and joint pains which went away quickly after my last infusion. All in all I think my many infusions of R were more boring than painful. I had percocet for the first four infusions and benadryl with acetomenophen for all of them, so no pain. I strongly recommend R only to those for which it is appropriate -  low bulk tumors and no vital organs immediately threatened.

lindary

unknown said:

Rituxan

i had an extensive course of Rituxan only. Once a week for 8 weeks then every 8 weeks for 28 months. On my first infusion I experienced a severe drop in blood pressure. I blacked out and awoke to Doctors performing chest compressions. The dose was slowed to a trickle and the infusion Was completed in 10 hours. After that everything went well. I suffered leg and joint pains which went away quickly after my last infusion. All in all I think my many infusions of R were more boring than painful. I had percocet for the first four infusions and benadryl with acetomenophen for all of them, so no pain. I strongly recommend R only to those for which it is appropriate -  low bulk tumors and no vital organs immediately threatened.

R-CHOP

I started my treatments in Jan, 2015. That was 6 cycles of R-Chop, one every 3 weeks. When that was not 100% successful I did 3 cycles of RICE. To me the day of chemo is boring except for that first time with Rituxan. The Prednisone is another matter. As Max said, when tired you sleep or rest, when enegrized get up and do stuff, is right. Prednisone will charge you up for a few days. You can get a lot done then. When you stop taking it and crash, you need to sleep. The crash usually hits 20-24 hours after you last take it. I found that taking a nap the day after I stopped taking it seemed to lessen how tired I was the next 2 days but I was still tired. 

 

As too how long we stay in remission, each person is different. 

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

unknown said:

Rituxan

i had an extensive course of Rituxan only. Once a week for 8 weeks then every 8 weeks for 28 months. On my first infusion I experienced a severe drop in blood pressure. I blacked out and awoke to Doctors performing chest compressions. The dose was slowed to a trickle and the infusion Was completed in 10 hours. After that everything went well. I suffered leg and joint pains which went away quickly after my last infusion. All in all I think my many infusions of R were more boring than painful. I had percocet for the first four infusions and benadryl with acetomenophen for all of them, so no pain. I strongly recommend R only to those for which it is appropriate -  low bulk tumors and no vital organs immediately threatened.

Ritux

I read GK's account of Rituxan and recalled my experiences with it, approaching six years ago...it seems like 1,000 years ago now, for some reason.

R-ABVD is all IV (none of the drugs are a pill), and all are given on the same day: once every two weeks.  The drugs were always given in the same order, and always the Rituxan first.  The only reaction I can positively link to it was chills, which lasted till the bag ended.  This went on for six months (12 sittings); chills every time. Rituxan gives some people muscle pain, but so can two of the other drugs in abvd, so I cannot know if it was the Rituxan or not, but I had severe muscle pain for nearly six months, from the second infusion until after the last. The reaction is called Flu-Like Syndrome. Some people get fever with it, but I did not. The link attached says that the chemical effect of the drug makes the body think it is being attacked by the flu, and the pain results.  I believe r-abvd could be given to prisioners in Gitmo, and they would give up any information they had.

I noticed a box on wheels at the nurse's station one day and asked what it was. The infusion RN said "A crash cart."  Some of these drugs can put a person down. The nurse seemed to watch me more during the Rituxan bag, but two of the other drugs were vesicants, and administered by a push-pull cylinder. I asked him why it was not given via drip, and he said, "This stuff cannot spill. If it spills, we have to call DHEC, and set up an exclusion area until it is cleaned up."

I got to the cancer center at about 7:30 AM, and left around 4:00 PM each of the twelve sessions, or an eight-hour day.  I do not recall any variation in how I felt between the day after getting an infusion or ten days later; it was all identical.

The first-ever chemo was Mustargen -- Mustard Gas, the same stuff used against troops in WW II. And leukemia and lymphomia is what it was first used to treat. It is still in common use today, mostly in MOPP, and some other combinations.  It is restriced in handling and use by International Chemical Warfare laws.

No wonder there are dozens of possible side-effects for each of these lovlies.  If a sniveling coward like me can get through it, though, anyone can.

Flulike Syndrom:  http://chemocare.com/chemotherapy/side-effects/flulike-syndrome.aspx

Mustargen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlormethine    

http://chemocare.com/chemotherapy/drug-info/Mustargen.aspx

 

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